The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved an additional loan amount of US$115mn to finance the construction of an electricity highway running between Ethiopia and Kenya
The loan agreement was signed last week in Nairobi by AfDB East Africa regional director Gabriel Negatu and Kenya finance minister Robinson Githae. In September 2012, AfDB had approved a sum of US$348mn to fund to the project.
The US$1.26bn Ethiopia-Kenya power line project will be a 1,068km high-voltage transmission line with a power transfer capacity of up to 2,000MW.
Githae said, “This project will facilitate export of surplus power from Ethiopia to Kenya and therefore increase power supply in the country.”
According to AfDB, the project will position Ethiopia as the main powerhouse and Kenya as the main hub for power trade in the East Africa region.
The project, which is co-funded by the World Bank, the French Development Agency and the governments of Ethiopia and Kenya, will ultimately connect power grids of five East African countries, namely Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the DR Congo.
